The Unexpected
by MusicalBox09
Summary: One-shot. Musical-verse. When Jack runs up to his penthouse after being beaten up by his boys, he meets someone unexpected. This is an slightly-expounded version of the scene leading to "Something to Believe In." Basically a scene and character study. Jack/Katherine pairing.


**Hi there! So I'm glad that some of you guys liked my other Newsies one-shot, and I wanted to post this fic as well. This was also written around a year ago, and it's the second out of the two Newsies fics I wrote during the peak of my Newsies fangirling.**

 **This is also fluffier than I'm normally used to writing, but after watching a couple of "Something to Believe In" clips, I melted into a puddle of fangirling because they are so _cute_ together (or, in Tagalog, we call this action _kilig._ :D ).**

 **Enjoy!**

 **DISCLAIMER: NO, I do not own these characters, nor do I own the song or the scene it was based on. All rights go to Disney, Harvey Fierstein, Jack Feldman, and Alan Menken.**

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"Get him!"

A very bruised and tired Jack Kelly rounds the corner and hides behind the wall as the newsies run past him. Don't they know that he is only trying to look out for them? To protect _them_? He knows what old Joe is capable of doing, and with the old man's threats, the big amount of blackmail money, and the Delancey brothers' shiny new brass knuckles, Jack finds himself trying to stop the revolution he had started.

 _"But what did that end up to? I get beaten up by my own boys, that's what,"_ he thinks.

So Jack is upset, and where does he usually head to when he needs to clear his head a bit and think?

That's right.

Jack bolts through the doors of the lodging house and runs towards the ladder leading up to the roof.

He is just about to reach the last few rungs of the rusted metal ladder to his penthouse when he finds an unexpected visitor rummaging through his drawings. A visitor none other than Katherine Plumber. Or, well, Pulitzer as he had recently come to know. The girl who had led him to trust her so fully, the girl who had piqued his interest ever since they'd met in the busy streets of early-morning Manhattan, is actually the daughter of the monster who had started this whole mess. And she has his precious drawings (so precious that he really didn't want her to see them) in her hands.

He knows he has to keep those sketches away from her. What would she think of him now that she'd seen the drawings of his nightmares? That she now knows of the fact that he had been in there, that the place and teh scenarios he had sketched out so accurately in those crumpled, yellowed rolls of paper had hurt him so much that he remains broken and haunted to this day? How could he face her when she knows of the cruelty he'd faced, when she knows that he has been damaged to the core? He knew he couldn't.

Then they start to fight. They shout at each other until she shakes her fist in front of his face threateningly and he encourages her to go ahead. He had expected that from her. She was aggressive, fierce, witty, and never willing to back down from a fight. He braces himself for another bruise to his jaw when his unexpected visitor does the unexpected.

She takes his head in her hands and presses her mouth on his, effectively stunning him and shutting him up.

Jack immediately tenses, his muscles becoming rigid and his spine straighter than a board. He knows what is going on and that he's not supposed to be doing this. He really didn't expect this to happen.

But she keeps on going, kissing him until he feels that he actually likes being kissed by this girl, that he wants to kiss her back. But she pulls away as quickly as she had started and continues talking about her plans like she hadn't just kissed him moments before.

He's utterly confused and admittedly frustrated. Just when he was about to give in. _Perfect timing, Jack. Just_ perfect _._

Nevertheless, he hears her out as she enthusiastically tells him of her plans. Her plans aren't half bad. She's just about to head down the stairs to execute her master plan when he speaks up.

"What's this all about to you? Not the Children's Crusade, I'm talking about us. Is this just a game to you or somethin'?" His voice starts to shake.

"Am I just tricking myself, or..." he trails off.

She stops. She'd hoped he'd not raise this up, but it only seemed fair to at least give him an explanation after she had just kissed him like that.

"Of course there is," she says a bit too cheerfully, climbing back up to join him.

"Well, don't just say that like it just happens every day!" he exclaims, exasperated.

She tries to calm him down, but he keeps talking. He admits his own insecurities, his fears of her leaving him to wake up from this "dream", his doubts about the future, about them. She wants to reassure him, to tell him that she won't leave him, that she believes in him. And she does.

As she tells him of her feelings, which in reality were just as unsure as his were, Jack realizes that even though she'd lied to him about her identity, he still believes her. He may not know what the future holds, but they have this moment to be with each other. It felt so comforting to him that this love they have this moment would stand forever.

She pauses, staring into his eyes and waiting for him to speak. Sensing that he needed to return the favor, Jack stands a little bit straighter and moves a little further from her, collecting his thoughts. Looking into the distance, he leans against the railing and starts to open up to her. He recalls the time they first met in the street, those moments in the theater, the strike.

He calls her the angel who was sent to save him. He was broken, dejected, upset, and guilty when she found him just now. Crutchie was most definitely being beaten up in The Refuge, the other newsies despise him now for siding with Pulitzer, the boys are all hurt, and he blames himself for all of it. How could she love a guy who's broken, scarred, and dirt-broke, not to mention that he wants to leave the city to go far, far away and never come back? He wasn't the kind of guy fit to marry the daughter of one of the most powerful men in town.

But he believes her. In this moment, Katherine loved him and he loved her. And even if he might be headed towards Santa Fe come morning, what they have now will stay. She doesn't even know how much she's changed him.

Katherine listens to him as he leans over the fire escape and looks into the dark night sky. She walks to him and watches at him as he speaks. Every now and then, he'd look at her and she'd smile back at him, or he'd playfully bump her shoulder and she'd bump back, smiling. But then he calls her an angel, and her eyes widen in awe. She'd never expected that anyone would address her in such a way. He's echoing her words with confidence now, and he's affirming the fact that she's changed him and that he believes in her.

Jack straightens up and takes her small, cold hands in his large, warm ones as he speaks. He looks into her eyes, trying to convey how much he really believes in her. Her scared eyes meet his, and she finds that his eyes mirror hers. Everthing unspoken was conveyed through the intense emotions in their eyes.

Then Jack, her impossible boy, does the unexpected. He pulls her in for a kiss, cupping her face in his rough, ink-stained hands and pouring all his emotions, his doubts, and his love into the kiss. In his mind, he's crossing his fingers, praying that she'd reciprocate.

And thank God she does. She wraps her arms around him and kisses him back with as much force as he did. He takes her tiny waist in his hands and presses her closer to him. They are both trembling from the waves of emotion crashing down on both of them, the passion they both pour into each other, and the overwhelming fear of messing this up. But, somehow, they know what to do; and they kiss in the bright yellow moonlight.

Just as Katherine is about to deepen the kiss, Jack suddenly jerks away, turning away from her and leaning over the banister.

"If things were different-" he mutters.

Her smile fades. "If you weren't going to Santa Fe?"

"And if you weren't an heiress. If your father wasn't after my head."

Her smile returned. She followed his gaze and watched the city below prepare for the night.

"Come on, you aren't really scared of my father."

He turns to look at her. " No, but I'm pretty scared of you."

Swiftly turning her head in shock of his words, she firmly said, "Don't be." She _knows_ how scared he was about things like this, so she tries her hardest to show him that he has nothing to fear about her.

He takes her hand in his, looking into her deep brown orbs; and she immediately knows that he'll heed her word. Launching herself into his arms, Katherine embraces Jack tightly, desperately, as if they would never see each other again. He quickly recovers from his shock and returns the gesture, hugging her as tightly as he could.

Katherine is sure that she would always be safe in Jack's arms. She knows this protective stance he had with her, and she knows that she would never _ever_ deserve a man like him.

She whispers in his ear and smiles. "Thank you Jack."

Jack's smile only grows as he holds her even tighter. He couldn't thank her enough for lifting him back up on his feet and filling the cracks of his heart with her love. She's the one who's patching up his scars and making him feel happy and whole again.

"No, Katherine. Thank _you_."

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 **Please do review! I will be posting the Hunger Games oneshot I've been working on since I watched the last movie soon. (I'm not entirely satisfied with it yet, but I'm almost done!)**


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